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Hi,

I went from a 10+ year old 5.1 sound system for half the price to a sonos beam (gen 2) with sub mini and 2 one sl. Over all im impressed, the sound is amazing. Music sounds way better than before and so does the over all environmental sound in movies. However the speech sounds like it comes from a boosted small telephone speaker, no depth what so ever. On my old system the speech was not as clear but it still had more depth and sounded more natural and in sync with the rest of the soundpicture. Now it feels like the speech is coming from a different sound source than the rest of the sound. I vissited a friend who have an arc with sub gen 3 and 2 one sl and i actually felt the same way. We only tried console gaming, but the speech in the games sounded the same as on my system in movies, high piched and out of the picture. My companion in game (god of war ragnarok) sounded like i talked to him on the phone and not in the same environment.

I have tested the loudness feature, trueplay tuning, night mode and speech enhancement but still no big improvemnts. 

Does anyone else feel the same or is this just how its supposed to sound now days(Please say no..)?

I can add why i brought up the arc scenario is because i thought a larger speaker would solve this problem but apparently no. The speech still sounded like it came from a small portable phone speaker not in sync with the woofers at all.


I have both the Arc and Beam (gen2), each are working on LG TV’s and they sound fine - I don’t use Sonos ‘speech enhancement’, but often use ‘night mode’. I have the Bass set at default and have set the Treble up a couple of notches to suit my own hearing/environment …and not noticing the ‘telephony’ issue mentioned. My previous setup was a Sony HT 5.1 and the speech on that was about on par, but the Sonos surround sound beats the Sony system hands down.

Maybe try adjusting the EQ and/or re-Trueplay-tune the device (or try it with Trueplay off) etc; and see what works best for your hearing/environment.


Sounds like you are saying, this is how its supposed to sound now days, which i feared. Im gona make some more addjustements later today but if i cant bring up the bass on the speech i think im gona have to find another sound system.
I know it should be possible since music and stereo videos on youtube sounds just like normal. Voices sound natural, like the person stod in the same room and talket right to me, no distortions. But on netflix with 5.1 where all channels can work with their own tasks i get this high pitch speech all of a sudden. Like voice from the cast is comming from a tiny portable telephone speaker. not saying the speech is low in volume. just low in depth, as if the bass does nothing with the speech. 


Sounds like you are saying, this is how its supposed to sound now days, which i feared. Im gona make some more addjustements later today but if i cant bring up the bass on the speech i think im gona have to find another sound system.
I know it should be possible since music and stereo videos on youtube sounds just like normal. Voices sound natural, like the person stod in the same room and talket right to me, no distortions. But on netflix with 5.1 where all channels can work with their own tasks i get this high pitch speech all of a sudden. Like voice from the cast is comming from a tiny portable telephone speaker. not saying the speech is low in volume. just low in depth, as if the bass does nothing with the speech. 

I guess if you can’t find the sound you are looking for in your chosen environment, after trying all the various manual adjustments using the custom tools in the App, then the Sonos product may not be for you …and as you say, you may perhaps need to look elsewhere.

I guess there’s no pleasing everyone, as we clearly all hear things differently.

Personally speaking, I’m happy with each of my Sonos Arc/Beam HT setups here.


Sounds like you are saying, this is how its supposed to sound now days, which i feared. Im gona make some more addjustements later today but if i cant bring up the bass on the speech i think im gona have to find another sound system.
I know it should be possible since music and stereo videos on youtube sounds just like normal. Voices sound natural, like the person stod in the same room and talket right to me, no distortions. But on netflix with 5.1 where all channels can work with their own tasks i get this high pitch speech all of a sudden. Like voice from the cast is comming from a tiny portable telephone speaker. not saying the speech is low in volume. just low in depth, as if the bass does nothing with the speech. 

I guess if you can’t find the sound you are looking for in your chosen environment, after trying all the various manual adjustments using the custom tools in the App, then the Sonos product may not be for you …and as you say, you may perhaps need to look elsewhere.

I guess there’s no pleasing everyone, as we clearly all hear things differently.

Personally speaking, I’m happy with each of my Sonos Arc/Beam HT setups here.

Yea, i did some more tweaking yesterday and i think it sounds a bit better today. It seems not all the movies sound the same and it often plays a bit better on louder volumes. I kinda need to find that sweet spot. But its a bit anoying having to always find that sweet spot when i cant always have the same volume when watching movies or gaming. In that sense i kinda miss my old system but when it sounds good i dont. After all i just bought this system and i think i need to get to know it more.